


With You

by MissCeles



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/M, In between their A and S supports, Pre-Relationship, Takes place just after chapter 19 in Conquest, Though it's barely mentioned lol, just a lil bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-06-17
Packaged: 2018-11-15 01:02:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11219988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissCeles/pseuds/MissCeles
Summary: Corrin and Leo take a moment by the fire, and Corrin has a realization.





	With You

“Leo,” Corrin asked softly, “may I sit with you?”

Leo glanced up from where he sat, the steady light of a campfire illuminating his face in the quickly darkening evening. His eyes widened slightly, and he gave a jerky nod. He shifted over on the makeshift bench that had been constructed at the campsite – a few logs piled together – and cleared his throat.

“Here,” he offered stiffly. “You can, uh, sit.” 

Corrin giggled, pushing a lock of her white hair behind a delicately pointed ear as she sat beside him. Leo cleared his throat again as if to speak, but instead just looked intensely down at the tome he had been studying. Corrin smiled fondly, before turning to crack open her own book – she had just started studying Mjolnir. 

They read in silence for a few minutes, before Corrin closed her book gently, sighing.

“Hey, Leo,” she said quietly, trailing off slightly.

Leo looked up. “Mm?” 

“No, it's nothing, just...” Corrin once again didn't finish her sentence, and instead began to stare at the fire in front of them. Leo frowned, setting his tome down.

“You're bothered by the battle today,” Leo said – not a question, but a statement. Corrin didn't answer. “I thought Azura's words had cheered you up.”

“They did,” Corrin admitted, “but not entirely. The Kitsune didn't have to die, and I just keep seeing them every time I close my eye. Not just the Kitsune, but the singers, and the people of Cheve, and... I just... I'm so tired, Leo. Every day brings more death. Needless, senseless death. I just wish – oh, Leo, there are nights when I wish I were back at the Northern Fortress. Back with the way things used to be. No Hoshido, no war, no Yato, nothing.”

“Do you?” Leo asked, his voice barely above a whisper. “Even though you were trapped?”

Corrin buried her face in her hands, and shook her head. “I don't know, Leo. I'm just tired.”

Leo pulled her into an embrace instantly, and Corrin buried her face in his neck, hugging him tightly. One hand at the small of her back pulled her in closer, the other ran through her hair soothingly. 

The silence of the camp was broken only by the crackle of the fire, and – to Corrin's ears alone – Leo's heartbeat pulsing through his veins, steady and calm. The sound of it grounded Corrin. No matter how much death she had seen, Leo was alive. Leo was here. Leo was with her.

Her relationship with Leo was truly one of the things keeping her going these days – while the pair had always been close while growing up, only being a year apart, Leo had always had his guard up – as he had with all his siblings. It had only been recently that his shell had cracked, and Corrin had seen Leo's truest self. Since then they had only been closer and closer – Leo was the one person Corrin felt she could be truly open with, and could only hope he was the same way with her. 

They were no longer siblings. Corrin knew that much for certain. For while her relationships with Xander, Camilla, and Elise were still as loving as they had ever been, they were different in a way – much more like the relationship she'd had with Leo before the war. But now... Leo was so much more to her than a brother. He was her friend. Her rock. 

And – as she had discovered only a few days before, someone she felt a particularly strong urge to kiss. It was an urge that crept up inside of her now as they embraced, creeping up inside of her. It wasn't just that, either – she could practically feel words of love clawing up her throat, threatening to emerge. Gods. She loved Leo. 

She loved him. It seemed so obvious to her now – she loved him, she loved him, she loved him. And oh, was it ever hard not to just say it. 

Yes, their relationship had definitely changed during the war – and now, curled in the comfort and warmth of Leo's arms, Corrin wondered to herself why she'd wished she were back in the Northern Fortress – it would mean losing Leo. The Leo she'd gotten to know. The Leo she'd fallen in love with. 

“About what I said earlier...” Corrin murmured. “I've changed my mind.”

The hand running through her hair paused. “Hm?”

“I don't want to go back to the Northern Fortress. To before the war.”

“Nor do I.”

“I just want to be here with you,” Corrin admitted before she could stop herself. The effect on Leo was instantaneous. His heartbeat, which had been steady, began to race. Corrin could hear each beat quickening, and felt as though her heart was doing the same. Corrin ran her own words through her head – it wasn't as if she'd outright said she loved him. 

“Leo?” Corrin breathed into his shoulder. Leo's embrace had became rigid, though she could still hear his heart thumping quickly.

“You should get some sleep,” he said, tugging away from Corrin. Corrin's heart dropped. That wasn't how she'd imagined him reacting – even if she'd never intended to say what she had. Leo picked up his tomb and stood up briskly, brushing off his armour. He had only taken a few steps away from her when he paused and turned back.

“Good night, Corrin,” he said, his voice almost choked. “I – good night.” With that, he left her with just the dying fire as company. Corrin closed her eyes, and tried to remember what his embrace felt like. Gods, she was hopeless. And now she knew he didn't feel the same.

“Good night, Leo,” she murmured back.

**Author's Note:**

> Whelp gotta love that supposedly-unrequited love, but hey, it's okay! They'll get married in their S support! 
> 
> You know, for someone who literally thinks about Leo and Corrin pretty much every single day and has read - I'm not kidding - every single fanfic on this site for them, I can't believe I've never written them a little ficlet before - at least, not a completed one. I wrote this one in about an hour and just decided to post it on a whim. ^^


End file.
